Arch supporting means



Feb. 7, 1950 v. MASAL 2,496,802

ARCH SUPPORTING MEANS Filed April 25, 1948 Bnventor;

Vince? Mensa/Z,

W Gttprheg.

Patented Feb. 7, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

This invention relates to shoes provided with I special arch-supporting means, and to an archsupporting device which can be applied to shoes in general.

Shoes have heretofore been provided with various arch-supporting means at one location or another within the bottom recess of the shoe, which recess extends from the front edge of the heel to the bottom ground-contacting surface of the sole and is defined in outline by the front vertical surface of the heel and the bottom surface of the arch sole section of the shoe. Such prior art arch-supporting means have, however, not been found entirely satisfactory, mainly because of the discomfort resulting from their use and the limited extent of the corrective action effected by their use.

One object of my invention is to provide a novel shoe having arch-supporting means embodied in the bottom recess thereof which overcomes the indicated and other detrimental features of the similar prior art shoes.

Another object is to provide a novel arch-supporting device which is adapted to be secured'at a certain location in the bottom recess of shoes in general, and which device is shaped and arranged to effect a cushion-like support of selectively determinable resiliency at said location.

Another object is to provide such an arch-supporting device which is formed of resilient material, such as rubber, and shaped to form-fittingly fill a certain portion of the bottom recess of a shoe, adjacent the inner side of the latter.

Another object is to provide such a device which is adapted to be secured at a certain location in the bottom recess of a shoe, so that it will function as a resilient arch-supporting cushion along the inner arch area of the foot and provide maximum foot comfort as Well as effective arch correcting action, in novel manner.

A further object is to provide such an archsupporting device which can be readily secured in the bottom recess of a shoe, which is formed so that the exposed portion of the device will harmonize in appearance with the general appearance of the shoe, and which embodies certain structural and functional features of advantage over the similar devices of the prior art.

Another feature of the invention resides in the provision of such a device which is made of resilient material, such as rubber, and shaped so that it can be form-fittingly mounted in the bottom recess of a shoe in such manner that it will either entirely fill said recess from the inner arch sole edge to a point intermediate the side edges of said arch sole section and from top to bottom of the recess, thereby to effect a resilient arch-supporting cushion having a certain degree of resiliency, or which extends to within a determined distance of the bottom of the recess so that it will have a different degree of resiliency.

Another object is to provide such a device which is adapted to be secured in the bottom recess of a shoe in such manner that it will support sub stantially one-half of the entire arch sole portion of the shoe, adjacent the inner side of the latter. and will impart a progressively varying degree of resilient support widthwise of said area.

With these and other objects in view, which will become more apparent from the following description of my novel improvements shown in the accompanying drawings, the invention comprises the novel shoe, arch-supporting device, elements, features of construction and arrangement of parts in cooperative relationship. as more par ticularly defined by the hereto appended claims.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is an elevational view of the inner side of a girls or lady's shoe having one form of my novel arch-supporting means embodied therein in accordance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of the shoe shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a transverse elevational sectional view, taken substantially as indicated by the arrows 3-3 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of an arch-supporting device in accordance with my invention, as it appears when inverted, or turned upside down, and is seen from the rear.

Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive of the drawings, illustrate a conventional shoe of the type worn by girls or ladies, and disclose one form of my invention embodied therein. The shoe shown in said figures comprises the usual constituent parts, such as a shoe upper l sole 2 and heel 3, and the said parts are made and united in accordance with modern shoe construction practices, of materials utilized in carrying out such practices.

The heel 3 comprises a usual upper portion 3 made of leather or the like, and a separate lower, or bottom portion 3 made of rubber.

The sole 2 comprises a front section 2 the bottom surface of which normally contacts the ground when the shoe is in use, and an arch section 2 which curves upwardly from the section 2 to the top portion of the heel part 3*.

The arrangement of the arch sole section 2 in relation to the heel 3, forms a recess at the bottom of the shoe. This recess extends from the 3 front bottom edge of the heel 3 to the bottom surface of front sole section 2, and is defined in outline by the front vertical surface of the heel 3 and the bottom surface of the arch sole section 2 I am aware that various arch-supporting means have heretofore been provided which are adapted to be mounted, at one location or another, in the said bottom recess of a shoe. However, in accordance with my invention. a structurally and functionally novel arch-supporting device is mounted at a certain location within said recess, in such a manner as to provide the shoe structure with a highly desirable arch-supporting action and cushion-like arch-supporting quality. not attainable with the indicated prior art arch supporting means.

One form of arch-supporting-device in-accordance with my invention is shown in Fig. 4, and is generally identified by the letter D. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the device D and shows the latter-as it appears when inverted, or turnedupside down. The said device D is molded or otherwise constructed of resilient material, such as rubber of the type from which rubber shoeheels are ordinarily made, and is shaped asillustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive, so that it will formfittingly fill a segmental section of the bottom re cess of the shoe adjacent to the inner side of the latter, substantially from the top to the bottom of the recess and from the inner side edge of the arch sole section 2" to substantially'the longitudinal center line of the recess. The device D is provided with a bottom surface D that is slightly inclined upwardly in lateral or sidewise direction, as clearly shown in Figs. 3 and 4. At 'the'rear, the device D is provided with a surface D that conforms in shape with the front surface of the heel 3, and the top surface of the device D is shaped to conform with the bottom surface of thearch sole section 2 The front section of thedevice D is slightly curved outwardly in conformity with the arch sole section 2 of theshoe, and the exposed side surface D of the device is "shapedso that it is in direct continuation and alignment with the adjacent side surfaces of the foot "sole section 2 and heel 3. A series of vertically extending nail-receiving apertures D are provided in the device D, and standard type metallic=nailhead seating discs, or washers,.are embedded in the device D, in crosswise relation'with-the apertures D near the upper ends of the latter. :If 'desired, oneor more of the apertures D located along the front end of the device D, -may be slightly inclined rearwardly, as shown in Fig. 1.

The device D may be secured in'the bottom recess of the shoe, at the location shown'in Figs. 1 and 2, by first applying asuitable adhesive material, indicated by the letter A in Fig. 3, to the'top and rear surfaces of the device D, and then bringing these surfaces into pressure contact with the bottom surface of the arch sole section Z -and the front vertical surface-of'the heel 3, until the device D is held in place by the adhesive material. Thereafter, the device Dis firmly secured in said position by means of nails N that are driven upwardly through the apertures D until their heads are seated in the-concave portion of the cup-shaped discs or washers-D It will benoted that the provision of inclined apertures for the nails, as shown at the front end of the device D in Fig. 1, facilitates driving of the nails N into the foot sole section of the shoe at an inclination, and this will result in more firm, or effective anchorage of the device D to the foot sole section 2 than would be the case if the said apertures were in parallelism with the perpendicularly arranged nail receiving apertures in the rear section of the device D.

Since the device D is made of rubber and is located directly adjacent the inner side of the shoe, it serves as a relatively soft resilient cushion-like support for the arch sole section 2 at this point, which has a tendency to induce, or efiect, lateral tilting, or turning action of the foot to a certain eXtent, toward the outer side of the shoe. This limited foot turning tendency, or action, is beneficial in bringing about gradual correction of the conditions which usually necessitate the wearing of shoes having arch-supporting means. At the same time, the resilient cushion-like arch-supporting action of the deviceD provides maximum supporting comfort at the arch section of the foot. Due to the inclined bottom surface D, the yieldability of the device D progressively varies laterally or crosswise of the arch section ofithe foot, so that the relative firmness of the device D, or its resistance to downward foot pressure, is greatest along the inner side area of the foot arch and gradually decreases toward-the outer side area of the foot arch in direct proportion with the extent-of the yielding movement of the device as permitted by the inclination of the bottom surface D In the event that a certain foot condition initiallyrequires a lesser amount of arch-supporting firmness along the inner side area of the foot arch, the bottom surface .D of the device D may be raised above the bottomsurface level of the shoe. as indicated by the dot-and-dash lin L in Fig. 1, by adistance which willprovide limited movement of said bottom surface D into contact with the ground, before the device -D will exert its arch-supporting action, as above explained. This latter expedient may be carried out at any time by simply removing, or cuttin away, the required amount of rubber from the bottom of the device D, so that the bottom surface D is limitedly spaced from the bottom shoe level, as indicated.

'1 have found in practice that the device D can be made of a resilient-material such as cork, and that when th device is made of such material it performs its intended function in a substantially satisfactory manner. Nevertheless, 'it is considered preferable to construct both the devices D and M of rubber, since this permits their production in large quantities by a molding process similar to that followed in the production of rubberheels for shoes.

Of course, the improvements herein shown and described, can be changed and modified in various ways without departin from my invention, the scope of which is more particularly indicated by the hereto appended claims.

I claim:

1. An attachment of the character described for recess; comprising an arch-supporting device that is shaped to correspond in configuration with the segmental section of said recess located directly adjacent to and extending laterally from the inner side edge of the shoe sole and heel, which device is provided with a resilient portion at .its bottom having a laterally inclined flat ground contacting surface the outer lengthwise extending edge of which is adapted to be positionally located above the heel surface of the shoe; and means for receiving elements for securing thedevice in form-fitting relation in said segmental section of the recess.

2. An attachment of the character described for ashoe having a bottom recess; comprising an arch-supporting device that is shaped to correspond in configuration with the segmental section of said recess located directly adjacent to and extending laterally from the inner side edge of the shoe sole and heel, which device is provided with a resilient portion at its bottom having a laterally inclined flat ground contacting surface having one lengthwise extending edge adapted to be positionally located above the heel surface of the, shoe; and means for receiving devices for securing the device in form-fittmg relation in said segmental section of the recess.

'1 VINCENT MASAL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

Number Number 6 UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Emery May 6, 1913 Lewis Feb. 22, l9l6 Oakley Mar. 2, 1937 Merritt Oct, 27, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Germany Mar. 22, 1933 

